One of FX's most popular shows ever is set to resume its final season this fall. Sons of Anarchy returns Sept 9th and FX has just released a trailer with a first look at the seventh season. I wonder if star Charlie Hunnam's going to be able to make the transition into movies after this. SOA fans, mark your calendars for the 90-minute premiere!
RECAP: Masters of Sex 2x04 "Dirty Jobs"
Well, all the supporting characters are back this week, as we check in with Austin, Lillian, Betty and Libby after spending the entire time with just Bill and Ginny in the epic third episode of the season. But tonight it's back to business as usual, although we do start off with Ginny having a dream wherein Bill has resumed the study without her and downgraded her official position to "mistress." This freaks her out, as she wakes up in the hotel to find Bill reading the paper at the table and she's now in a prickly mood, as she scolds him for not waking her. As the two leave the hotel they're spotted down the hall by Austin, who has to occasionally take his kids there for their visits while he's separated from his wife.
Ginny then wants to unload her car of all the paperwork relating to the study but Bill doesn't want Barbara to have it because she's terrible as a secretary and wants Ginny to organize everything herself. This puts her in an even worse mood, which sours still further when Bill questions her selling of diet pills he spots in the trunk. Back at the hospital, Bill is resuming the study but keeps getting horned in on by Greathouse, who continues to be a pig who just wants to watch women masturbate, and Bill attempts to shoo him off first by telling him he's only watching old men, and then by warning of possible "transference," that might make him attracted to other men, but Greathouse persists in showing up, much to Bill's disdain. Bill also keeps trying to make Greathouse bring up the possibility of hiring Virginia with the board, and at first Greathouse pretends to agree but later tells him he never brought it up at all. He also brings a bunch of male colleagues into the study room to watch a pretty young girl in the lab but at that point Bill's had enough. He punches out Greathouse along with some of the other men and is promptly fired by him, who threatens him with never working at any other hospital. Libby is of course greatly upset by this and fed up with Bill's continual quitting of his jobs, but when Bill gets panicky and starts to stutter while he promises to take care of her, she calms him down and agrees that it will be fine.
Speaking of Libby, the show continues to try to turn her into Betty Draper 2.0, which I do not like at all. She keeps needling Coral about her pronunciation, and Coral defies her on it in front of her bridge group, but then baby Johnny gets lice and Libby's convinced it came from Coral and pushes her to wash her hair with anti-lice shampoo. Coral appeals to Bill for help and he's on her side, but that only angers Libby more, to the point where she forces Coral into the bathroom and washes her hair for her. Ugh. Why are you doing this, show? I actually liked Libby, which was rare for me when it comes to the standard "wife" character on a lot of these shows, but this is really forcing her over the edge. And frankly, Caitlin Fitzgerald is far too warm and kind to play bitchy in that ice queen perfect way that January Jones does it. It won't work.
Elsewhere, back on Ginny's side of things, she's confronted by Austin in the cafeteria about him seeing her at the hotel and she plays it cool by claiming that she and Bill just need a place to work on the study. He seems to believe her and she tells Bill what happened later, but he's worried about it, which turns her off and she walks out on him (at least this time). But Bill's right, because stupid Austin didn't buy it at all and in fact has a drink with Lillian later and spills the beans to her about the affair (she's very upset), and in the last moments of the episode comes over the BIll's house for dinner to give him what he thinks is sound advice when it comes to fooling around on the wife. He basically asks him if it's worth losing his family for and Bill just says nothing in response. Lillian spends the episode trying to get an endorsement for her pap smear program from the doctor it's named after, despite her failing health and radiation treatments she's now enduring. He doesn't seem all that interested and when Lillian finds out from Austin about Bill and Ginny she tries to get Ginny to fess up to her, but Ginny won't budge an inch. Lillian seems devastated by this and decides to hand the entire program over to the doctor who will take all the credit for it. Ginny's upset but Lillian is sure about it, having decided there was no one appropriate to carry on the work in her place (because she's that disappointed in Ginny, in case you didn't get it).
Finally, Betty comes back tonight, still deceiving her husband Gene, the Pretzel King about her maybe having children. This time though, Bill's had enough of that as well and tells him that they've just found out Betty's sterile. He's clearly uncomfortable lying and Gene is extremely upset about it, and when he wants to pay Bill for all the fertility treatments anyway, he finds out that Betty lied all along and knew before they even met. She tries to explain how she knew he wouldn't marry her if he knew the truth, but Gene fesses up that he met her before they met at the church, when he was a shy teen who came to her at the brothel. Betty's shocked, having not remembered this at all, and Gene says he didn't care that she wasn't a "good Christian girl," he just thought they it was fate when they met again. In the last moments of the episode, Ginny's losing hope of the study returning, as she tries to embrace her new career as a diet pill saleswoman, but Bill secures a new position rather quickly, as he joins an African-American hospital headed by Dr. Hendricks (Courtney B. Vance) who tells him they're happy to welcome both him and his partner there. So that's it for tonight everyone. Lots of talking as usual (this is probably one of the more cerebral shows on TV), but come back next week to find out where all this is headed.
BLOOPER REEL: "Game of Thrones" Season 4
Check out this blooper reel from the last Game of Thrones season that Comic-Con put out the other day. It's worth it just to see the funny Peter Dinklage dance his way down the aisle at Tyrion's big trial moment. Awesome.
TRAILER: "The Walking Dead" Season 5
Walking Dead fans rejoice! One of the most popular shows on TV is coming back October 12th, and Comic-Con put out a long, very detailed trailer for the upcoming fifth season. Lots of zombie action as usual (I suspect that's really the only part of the show people actually like, since most of the humans are pretty dull). But if you're a fan, mark your calendars. It seems like they always try to bring this back as close to Halloween as possible. That's probably intentional, huh?
RECAP: Masters of Sex 2x03 "Fight"
Wow. What a great episode. Unfortunately, this kind of episode is what's known as the recapper's nightmare, because what I have to relay is mostly dialogue. Bill and Virginia spend the hour almost entirely in their hotel room during one of their clandestine meetings, having sex, talking, confessing and playing mind games with each other as they continue to deny what they're really doing is having an affair. But first we start off with Bill delivering a baby that possesses both male and female genitalia. It's a sad incident which becomes worse as the baby's father is pretty much a monster who insists on cutting off the baby's penis to make him a girl, even though blood tests show he's really a boy. But being a '50's dad and all, what's most important to him is that he not have a "sissy" for a son. Ick.
BIll is upset by this and tries to prevent it but the father goes around him and enlists a general surgeon who will do what he wants, even though he's never done the procedure before and has to literally follow a textbook in the middle of the operation. It's a tragic subplot that leads to Bill's somber mood when he goes to meet Ginny at the hotel. Before Ginny meets up with Bill she has a conversation with her daughter about "fairy tales," and it's clear that Ginny despises them for their happy endings and damsels in distress who have to be saved by men. Such a modern woman, that Virginia. So now we get to Bill and Ginny's rendezvous, and in order to recap what goes on in that room, we're going to list the relevant bits in a series of bullet points, so here we go:
• Bill is watching a boxing match on TV when Virginia arrives, so she goes to take a bath, and as she's undressing, Bill suddenly accosts her from behind and has her up against the wall in a frenzied sex session. Ginny acts like she's perturbed about it afterwards, but later admits to Bill that she liked it and liked the way he had her standing up. Steamy.
• Bill relays the day's events over the baby to Ginny, and his hatred of the father, who he says is a bully, like his own dad. He then tries to explain to Ginny the rules of boxing, as she laughs that he's so into it. Later, he actually tries to teach her how to punch, as they play act like the fighters and wind up with Ginny's bracelet stuck in his hair, which she has to saw off with a knife. It's pretty funny and marks the one time I think we've ever seen Bill laugh (he also actually calls her "Ginny" for the first time since the pilot, which delighted me).
• Ginny is unimpressed by his boring backstory to the waiter explaining their meet-ups, so she comes up with a more imaginative one for Mr. and Mrs. Holden, and actually gets Bill to play along as they pretend to be the married couple and talk to each other about their fake personal details. This also allows them to talk in half truths, leading to a personal confession from each of them.
• Ginny's Confession: she admits that she was in love with a man in her younger days who romanced her for a year and then one day left to marry his fiance, when she had no idea he was engaged. Turns out that's the reason she has sex freely but doesn't get emotionally attached to anyone. When Bill wonders where that leaves him she reverts back to an affectionate "Mrs. Holden" and we're unsure if she's telling the truth or not.
• Bill's Confession: he confesses fully to Virginia (when he never could to Libby) his abusive childhood, and the fact that his father regularly beat him and abandoned him in the city when he was 14, so that he could grow up and never come back. He also says he was proud of himself for never fighting back when his dad said he would stop when his son begged for mercy. Ugh, what an asshole. Ginny tells him there's no shame in admitting when you're hurt and that doing so doesn't make you less of a man. Bill gets teary-eyed at this. Aw.
• Can't leave this one out. Bill disrobes Virginia and wants her to beg him to make her feel good, but she refuses and defiantly says she can make herself feel good. She then masturbates in front of him. Again, steamy,
• Finally, both get ready to leave and Ginny tips the young waiter, advising him that her favorite thing about her "husband" is the way he takes her seriously and listens to her, and that he should remember that with his own girlfriend for the future. When he leaves, Bill comes over to fasten Ginny's bracelet for her and Ginny nearly strokes his hair affectionately, but stops herself. She then ignores his suggestion that this is where the married couple would kiss goodbye (they still haven't kissed on the mouth) and says she'll write up their "work" as role-playing and two acts of intercourse.
Bill goes to the hospital and finds out that the poor baby has been operated on, which devastates him as it was an act that was irrevocable, and Ginny stops by the lobby on her way out of the hotel, where a bunch of men are still gathered, watching the fight (which seems like it must have been the longest fight in history, but I suppose they could have only been there for a few hours). She tells one of the guys in the room she just wants to see how it ends.
So, yeah, they're never going to admit real feelings are they? Although I'm sure they're going to eventually kiss, I mean that has to happen, right? Well, aside from the too on-the-nose fight metaphors, this episode was a feat of writing, directing and acting, a great hour of television. Caplan and Sheen have amazing chemistry and this relationship is nothing less than compelling at every turn. I'm almost disappointed that the other cast members have to come back next week. But hey, at least that will make it easier to recap. See you then!
RECAP: Masters of Sex 2x02 "Kyrie Eleison"
Lots of different activities going on tonight, as BIll and Virginia start the episode together in the lobby of the hotel in which they're carrying on their affair, and then spend most of the rest of the hour apart. But first they start off having a discussion over where Barton could be hiding out, as neither of them seem able to get in touch with him. Then Bill tells Ginny that he hasn't been able to yet convince Greathouse (Danny Huston, who showed up in the last episode) of her importance in the study, since she's not herself a doctor despite her name being on the paper with his. Ginny's having none of that though, and gives herself the task of getting rid of Bill's assigned secretary so that he can be given free reign to hire her back at least in that position temporarily. She thinks it will be easy since all secretaries now seem to despise her very presence.
So Bill starts his new job at Memorial Hospital and is quickly preoccupied with a case involving an 18-year-old girl named Rose, who comes in needing immediate surgery for a botched abortion. Over the rest of the episode we find out that Rose thinks she's sick for having "urges" that can't be quelled, and she's had another previous abortion already that her parents knew about. This time her mother wants Bill to give her a hysterectomy, which Bill refuses to do, saying it's too drastic a move and would take away her choices for the rest of her life. Greathouse and Rose's mother insist he do the procedure and even Rose tells Bill she agrees as along as it will stop her from acting like a "whore," but Bill actually ups his sympathy level for once, tells her she's not her worst part, and gives her something more useful- and IUD. This subplot also involves Betty, who's spending her days sitting in Bill's reception area for hours at a time, pretending she's getting fertility treatments so she can tell her husband they're working on it. Bill yells at her to tell him the truth, but she won't do it and eavesdrops on Bill's case through the shouting matches with Greathouse. She then goes to Rose and tells her the inspirational story of how she stabbed her own mother in the eye with her high heel (lol), but when Rose mentions what Bill's already said to her, Betty seems to see him in a new light.
Meanwhile, on Virginia's side of things, she's dealing with Lillian's continuing deterioration from her metastasizing cancer. She's slurring her words now and can't go through with a taped promotional message on pap smears, so Ginny figures it out and schedules an appointment with Lillian's oncologist. It doesn't do much good though, as Lillian just says she doesn't want anyone to know, but it does seem to bring the two women closer together as friends. Ginny also has a very uncomfortable meeting with Dr. Ditmer over his required use of the phallic device/camera she and Bill invented, and seems to have an orgasmic reaction over just her explanation of what the device does, right in front of her. Gross. This scene also cuts back and forth between Bill explaining to the equally curious Greathouse all the different positions couples can take in the sex sessions of their study (this after Greathouse just called anyone who differs from the norm of sexual behavior perverts, sluts or queers. Nice. Look in the mirror dude). Ginny tries to confront Vivian about Barton, who comes in to the hospital so that Austin can fix her broken wrist (which she maintained after cutting her dad down from the ceiling last week), but Vivian blows up at her for stealing Ethan away and then dumping him, telling her not to pretend they're friends. She then later confesses to Bill, who meets her outside her school, what happened to Barton, and that he and her mother have gone to Venice for his recuperation. Bill is pretty devastated by the news.
Ginny comes into Bill's office to try to woo away his goofy new secretary Barbara (played by Betsy Brandt- hey it's Marie from Breaking Bad!), but she changes her mind when Barbara proves to be so nice to her and eagerly wants advice on Bill. Ginny then has a friendly final scene with Austin, who lets her in on the dance parties he's having in his office after hours now that his wife's kicked him out, but he mentions that the two of them will never be together romantically because they're both "lone wolves." Ginny seems to agree. Back at the Masters house, Libby has hired a new nanny, an 18-year-old African American girl named Coral (Keke Palmer), who Bill at first is skeptical about, but Libby insists she has all kinds of things she can teach her. She ends up confiding in her about Bill's distance and coolness toward his own child as they fold the laundry, but Libby seems to have a change of heart when the naive Coral proves to be not so naive in everything, as she figures out how to calm the baby's crying without feeding him. Bill now thinks she'll work out after all, and for some reason Libby turns into a bitch the next day and starts trying to correct Coral's grammar, forcing her to pronounce the word "ask" correctly and not to talk "her own way" in front of the baby. I didn't really understand this scene at all, since from all that we've ever seen of her, Libby's been nothing but sweet and kind to everyone, not jealous and bitter in the slightest (she's like the complete opposite of Betty Draper). I guess we'll see where that goes.
The episode ends with Bill and Ginny meeting up again at their hotel to walk in together as the faux married couple they're pretending to be, and I don't know how they're fooling themselves that this is "work," since neither of them is doing any work at all on the study at this point. All this secrecy is clearly for their own pleasure. But, since next week looks to be a kind of bottle episode, involving only Bill and Virginia in a sort of one act play, I can only assume we'll be finding out then what this "affair" is all about.
'Breaking Bad' Wins Top Honors from the TCA Awards
The 2014 Television Critics Association winners have been announced, with Breaking Bad, The Good Wife and Orange is the New Black taking home big prizes. The TCA seemed to really want to spread the wealth around this year:
- Program of the Year: Breaking Bad
- Best New Program of the Year: Orange is the New Black
- Best Comedy Series: (tie) Veep; Louie
- Best Drama Series: The Good Wife
- Best Miniseries: True Detective
- Best Individual Performance in Drama: Matthew McConaughey, True Detective
- Best Individual Performance in Comedy: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep
- Best News and Information: Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey
- Best Reality Series: RuPaul's Drag Race
- Best Youth Program: The Fosters
- Heritage Award: Saturday Night Live
- Career Achievement: James Burrows
In case you were wondering, Program of the Year is meant to indicate the most culturally significant show, even if it's not the "best," while it's obvious they only called True Detective a miniseries so they could honor that in one of the categories without having to name it best drama or program of the year. I don't personally like these awards much- all the categories are kind of weird and seem designed so they can pick and choose what goes where so they can get away with choosing as much as possible.
TEASER: "Homeland" Season 4
We have a premiere date for the fourth season of Homeland, along with a new teaser and poster. Now all that's left is to see how Brody's exit from the show can maybe rejuvenate the series in some way. It's certainly going to have to become a different kind of animal, but maybe that's a good thing. Carrie's stationed in Pakistan this season and joined by new addition Corey Stoll and the stalwart Rupert Friend, and it looks like she's as unstable as ever. Homeland comes back October 5th on Showtime.
Elaine Stritch 1925-2014
Broadway legend Elaine Stritch died today at the age of 89. Best known for her decades of work on stage, but she also made regular appearances on television since the 1950's, both in America and on British TV. Most recently she became an Emmy winner for third time for her recurring guest role as Alec Baldwin's mother on 30 Rock (2007-2012). She appeared in occasional movie roles in her later years, notably Monster-in-Law with Jane Fonda, but it was always her stage work for which she was most known. She was nominated for five Tony awards and inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1995.
TEASER: "The Fall" Season 2
I can't wait for this! The Fall was a British drama series that aired just five episodes last spring, but it was sooo good. It streamed on Netflix at the same time, so you should check it out if you can. It's creepy, but well worth your time. Gillian Anderson is an Irish detective tracking a serial killer (Jame Dornan), but on this show we get everything from her's and the killer's perspective, as we see how he fools his wife, his boss and the people around him. I thought I wouldn't be able to handle the ick factor but it's nowhere near as graphic as something like Hannibal. It's much more of a psychological, meticulous show (it's probably way too slow for some people, actually). It's returning this fall some time, but as you can see, no exact premiere date yet.
